- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Chatto & Windus; Airport / Ireland / Export e. edition (2 July 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0701182857
- ISBN-13: 978-0701182854
- Product Dimensions: 13.7 x 2.5 x 22.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 768,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
`Written with verve and bursts of wild humour' --Independent
`an enlightening plunge into a world that we all come to know more about soon'
--Independent --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
`an enlightening plunge into a world that we all come to know more about soon'
--Independent --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
Here is a debut not to be missed - a ferocious, unusual, funny, exuberantly alive new voice in fiction, with a dark edge that's reminiscent of Lionel Shriver.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Swimming
Original, moving, ferociously written, and funny--Swimming by Nicola Keegan is that rare novel, the kind I love to read, then reread.
It's the story of a girl whose natural element is water under pressure. Propelled to greatness by tragedy and the will to survive it, the young heroine is anything but a trained robot. Surrounded by nuns and priests, sisters, friends, rivals and coaches, (what coaches!), she has an innate sense of humor that nothing--even death--can defeat. Billed as light summer fare, Swimming is much better than that. It's a great work of fiction. One that rings profoundly true.
- Laurel Zuckerman (Paris)
Original, moving, ferociously written, and funny--Swimming by Nicola Keegan is that rare novel, the kind I love to read, then reread.
It's the story of a girl whose natural element is water under pressure. Propelled to greatness by tragedy and the will to survive it, the young heroine is anything but a trained robot. Surrounded by nuns and priests, sisters, friends, rivals and coaches, (what coaches!), she has an innate sense of humor that nothing--even death--can defeat. Billed as light summer fare, Swimming is much better than that. It's a great work of fiction. One that rings profoundly true.
- Laurel Zuckerman (Paris)
Format:Paperback
This is a good read and in an interesting style. Having swimmers in the family myself I am impressed that the author has got under the skin of a competitive swimmer so well. The final section of the book is superfluous, and detracts from its earlier pace. As with sportsmen - should have stopped at its peak!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
80 reviews
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Ten Stars Would Not Be Enough!
5 Jun 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Nicola Keegan's irrepressible first novel tells the story of a young girl's rise from a tall Kansas hick to world- famous Olympic swimmer.
I loved the book for its dissection of the competitive spirit, the details of training (including the motivational speeches and the required diets) and the mentality of the super athlete. The analysis of the opposition was both snarky and sympathetic.
I loved this book for its depiction of swimming as escape from the burdens that life places upon families through illness, through dysfunction, through grief and loss and difference and plain old growing up. "Swimming" also gives us the friendship of Philomena and the Cocoplat with warmth and grace as the two change, grow, grow apart, reconcile.
I loved this book for the voice of the narrator, Philomena, her honesty, exuberance, humor, "eye talk," nun-parodies, and self-doubt.
"Swimming" is a funny, heart-breaking, wild, detailed, luminous, shattering, and wonderful book. It is absolutely my favorite book in years.
Brava, brava, brava, Ms. Keegan! "Swimming" is "Ulysses" without the intellectual pretense. The esteemed Harold Bloom of Yale may not agree, but I have "nunnerisms" straight from Philomena to tell him what I think of all that literary blather. This is a book for the ages and the people, not just the ivory-tower crowd.
I loved the book for its dissection of the competitive spirit, the details of training (including the motivational speeches and the required diets) and the mentality of the super athlete. The analysis of the opposition was both snarky and sympathetic.
I loved this book for its depiction of swimming as escape from the burdens that life places upon families through illness, through dysfunction, through grief and loss and difference and plain old growing up. "Swimming" also gives us the friendship of Philomena and the Cocoplat with warmth and grace as the two change, grow, grow apart, reconcile.
I loved this book for the voice of the narrator, Philomena, her honesty, exuberance, humor, "eye talk," nun-parodies, and self-doubt.
"Swimming" is a funny, heart-breaking, wild, detailed, luminous, shattering, and wonderful book. It is absolutely my favorite book in years.
Brava, brava, brava, Ms. Keegan! "Swimming" is "Ulysses" without the intellectual pretense. The esteemed Harold Bloom of Yale may not agree, but I have "nunnerisms" straight from Philomena to tell him what I think of all that literary blather. This is a book for the ages and the people, not just the ivory-tower crowd.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Hurt Forges a Champion
29 May 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This novel is about an Olympic swimming champion, but there is relatively little about the Olympics. Only one of the character's swimming races is presented in any detail at all. We see her punishing training routine. But the build-up to the specific races, the suspense about whether or not Pip, our protagonist, will break a world record or win the eight gold medals she aims at, is almost nonexistent, a sort of afterthought. This is not remotely a female, aquatic "Chariots of Fire."
What does the novel focus on? Mainly, the effects of Pip's tragic family history and, to a considerably lesser extent, her relationships with fellow swimmers. At one point, Pip says that something is wrong with every swimming champion--some grief or deficiency is driving them. Pip is driven to swim to escape unhappiness at home. To me the most involving part of the novel concerns her older sister's struggle with cancer. No one will speak honestly to this unfortunate young girl. She emerges as a vivid character about whom the reader truly cares. It's harder to care about Pip's mother, who suffers from a severe anxiety disorder which prevents her attending any of her daughter's swim meets, or Pip's two other sisters, one an almost-nun, the other struggling with drug addiction.
The writing is beautiful. This is a first person account, told in the present tense, and with italics substituting for quotation marks. Stylistically, all this works, bringing us very close to Pip. As a reader, you feel you are meeting a real human being and become truly involved with her story.
This is the kind of book in which, if the protagonist gets a dog, you assume it will meet a sad fate. Misery is piled upon misery in the early part of the novel. Happiness is rare and fleeting. No family member ever expresses pride in Pip's achievements. We get a sense of the sacrifices endured by an Olympic champion, not of the triumphs.
Pip's true struggle is less to win Olympic gold than to first evade and then finally confront grief and depression: I get this. Still, I wanted the other part of Pip's story--the thrill of competition, and ultimately of victory. This aspect is stinted. I found the novel absorbing--I admire the writing enough to give it four stars--but I felt a piece was missing.
What does the novel focus on? Mainly, the effects of Pip's tragic family history and, to a considerably lesser extent, her relationships with fellow swimmers. At one point, Pip says that something is wrong with every swimming champion--some grief or deficiency is driving them. Pip is driven to swim to escape unhappiness at home. To me the most involving part of the novel concerns her older sister's struggle with cancer. No one will speak honestly to this unfortunate young girl. She emerges as a vivid character about whom the reader truly cares. It's harder to care about Pip's mother, who suffers from a severe anxiety disorder which prevents her attending any of her daughter's swim meets, or Pip's two other sisters, one an almost-nun, the other struggling with drug addiction.
The writing is beautiful. This is a first person account, told in the present tense, and with italics substituting for quotation marks. Stylistically, all this works, bringing us very close to Pip. As a reader, you feel you are meeting a real human being and become truly involved with her story.
This is the kind of book in which, if the protagonist gets a dog, you assume it will meet a sad fate. Misery is piled upon misery in the early part of the novel. Happiness is rare and fleeting. No family member ever expresses pride in Pip's achievements. We get a sense of the sacrifices endured by an Olympic champion, not of the triumphs.
Pip's true struggle is less to win Olympic gold than to first evade and then finally confront grief and depression: I get this. Still, I wanted the other part of Pip's story--the thrill of competition, and ultimately of victory. This aspect is stinted. I found the novel absorbing--I admire the writing enough to give it four stars--but I felt a piece was missing.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Brilliant writing, elusive subject
30 May 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Swimming tells the story of Philomena, a tall sturdy midwesterner who transcends a dysfunctional family to become an Olympian gold medal swimming champion. I have no idea if the premise is plausible, but author Nicola Keegan writes so powerfully that I didn't care.
Reading Swimming is like seeing a car wreck. It's brutal but often hard to look away. I found myself wanting to read more and more. The pages kept turning. But as other reviewers have noted, Philomena rarely gets to enjoy a positive experience. Good things get taken away or overshadowed by the aftermath.
Perhaps there's just so much going on it's hard to keep track, whether you're living the life or just reading about it. Philomena's father chose an eccentric career path, yet the family seems to have unlimited money. Each of Philomena's three sisters battles her own demons. Then there's the whole backdrop of the Catholic church and the parade of fellow swimmers, most of whom seem one-dimensionally mean.
The ending goes on for a long time. Both the author and heroine seem to have lost their way. Philomena doesn't seem to have moved emotionally beyond her scarred family. Perhaps a star athlete necessarily becomes too involved to remain connected with life. But Philomena had a superb college education. She had experiences that must have contributed to her growth. And yet she seems to be back where she was at the beginning of the novel: out of place, confused and rudderless. I keep thinking of a rocket that escapes gravity, only to fizzle and fall back to earth, a hollow shell of its former self.
Throughout the book, I kept wanting to shake the heroine and say, "Move on. Get over it." Of course if she did, the genre would be more like chick lit or women's fiction. It's the constant battle with adversity, combined with the flawless writing, that keeps Swimming in the realm of literary fiction.
Reading Swimming is like seeing a car wreck. It's brutal but often hard to look away. I found myself wanting to read more and more. The pages kept turning. But as other reviewers have noted, Philomena rarely gets to enjoy a positive experience. Good things get taken away or overshadowed by the aftermath.
Perhaps there's just so much going on it's hard to keep track, whether you're living the life or just reading about it. Philomena's father chose an eccentric career path, yet the family seems to have unlimited money. Each of Philomena's three sisters battles her own demons. Then there's the whole backdrop of the Catholic church and the parade of fellow swimmers, most of whom seem one-dimensionally mean.
The ending goes on for a long time. Both the author and heroine seem to have lost their way. Philomena doesn't seem to have moved emotionally beyond her scarred family. Perhaps a star athlete necessarily becomes too involved to remain connected with life. But Philomena had a superb college education. She had experiences that must have contributed to her growth. And yet she seems to be back where she was at the beginning of the novel: out of place, confused and rudderless. I keep thinking of a rocket that escapes gravity, only to fizzle and fall back to earth, a hollow shell of its former self.
Throughout the book, I kept wanting to shake the heroine and say, "Move on. Get over it." Of course if she did, the genre would be more like chick lit or women's fiction. It's the constant battle with adversity, combined with the flawless writing, that keeps Swimming in the realm of literary fiction.
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